Poemas de Martí

Translation of Cultivo una rosa blanca...

I cultivate a white rose,

In July as well as January,

For a sincere friend,

Who gives me his/her/an honest/frank hand.

And for the cruel one who pulls from me

The heart with which I live,

I grow neither thistle nor thorn,

I grow a white rose.

Translation of Tiene el leopardo un abrigo...

The leopard has a coat

In his mountain, dry and brown;

I have more than the leopard

Because I have a good friend.

She sleeps, like a toy,

The young girl on her cushion

Of the Japanese maple; I say:

"There is no cushion like a friend."

The count has his ancestry:

The beggar has his daybreak:

The bird its wing: I have

There, in Mexico, a friend!

To the president belongs

A garden with a fountain,

A treasure of silver and gold:

I have more, I have a friend.